Monday, September 26, 2016

It is happening. Instead of buying at auction, an activity that I have enjoyed for more than 40 years, I am going to SELL at auction. The auction is next Sunday, October 2nd at Noon in Fairhaven, Minnesota.

I have rented a 40' by 25' large garage for storage for many years. My landlord has now sold the home site and garage and the new owners want to use the garage rather than receive my rent payments. I have until October 12th to empty the building.

My first instinct was to move my stuff elsewhere. I have now accepted that that is an unachievable task. The panic was setting in. How am I going to move this mountain of junk in 2 weeks. Luckily I was able to persuade a local auctioneer, Derek Lundeen, to take this auction on very short notice.

I have been unpacking, sorting and throwing for the past week. I have suffered a junkalanche or two. My feet and back are stiff and tired. I am too old to deal with this hoard. Now it will be auctioned, after the crew sets it up, and hopefully all of the junk will depart.

This photo gives you a glimpse of what I faced when I peared into the big building.

There is a lot of "in the rough" and antique furniture.

A couple of horizontal file cabinets.

Lots of drawers.

I hope everything sells. I especially hope that it doesn't rain next Sunday. I haven't attended an auction this month and it looks like my selling auction will be the next one that I make it to.

Saturday, September 24, 2016

We had a special sale for a bus load of women on a ladies' weekend adventure. This meant that we had to have our spaces ready more than a week early from the normal monthly market at Second Hand Rose in Buffalo, Minnesota. I am almost never ready early and often am the last one setting up on the Sunday evening before the normal event. I have been bringing items in since the last sale. I brought a load from my soon to be abandoned storage building on Friday and finshed my set up by 10 PM. And I wasn't the last dealer to complete my set up.

I will probably bring in a few more items and maybe do a little bit of rearranging, but I am now ready for the October market.

The north wall of my space.

A piece of church fretwork, lantern, arts and crafts umbrella stand, silverplate tray and knick-knack shelf, just sort of stacked together.

Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Well I did get everything, almost, into Second Hand Rose, for the September market that begins on September 1st. It was hot, it rained a lot and as usual the furniture that I was dancing with was heavy. My camera was uncharged so I "borrowed" these photos from Amy Johnson.

The west wall. The small arts & crafts bookcase on the left is nice. The copper, horse decorated lamp atop the bookcase has a vintage milk can strainer shade. The blue background print on the wall is a coat of arms and very attractive.

The north wall. The pillars are great, but the old weathered rail fence post in the center is my favoritest piece. There are some really cool items in this photo. On the very outside edges are chestnut bed rails from a rope bed. They have threaded ends and knobs for looping the rope. Next to the rails and across the top are three pieces of 1950's decorative gingerbread from a 1952 house in Willmar, MN.

Mid-century modern chair with a great wrought iron lamp with strainer shade on the table next to the chair.

Black (ebonized) Victorian chairs circa 1875.

The little hat boxes in front of the horse lamp each contain a miniture cowboy hat.

Sunday, July 31, 2016

Its time for the monthly four day market at Second Hand Rose in Buffalo, Minnesota again next weekend. It was hot and humid today getting my pieces into place on Sunday. There's a new wrinkle for this market too. I actually assembled a repurposed piece of furniture from items that I have gathered over the past few months.

This is my new old piece. A great coffee table assembled from a milled ash slab and an old cast iron sewing machine base.

The base is shorter that most old sewing machines and when attached to the ash slab it stands at a perfect coffee table height.

The base is very attractive.

The rest of my set up involves 4 very large white chippy paint porch posts. I measured one while it was laying in the truck. It was going to fit by about one inch. I hoisted the 100 pound monster into the shop and gingerly slid it into place with about an inch to spare. I hauled the other three posts into the shop and then tried to set them up. It seems that the other three posts are about 4 inches taller than the post that I measured and barely fit. I think that Mr. Murphy was overseeing this entire transaction. The posts would not fit. So instead of standing stately on each side of my center vignette, I had to stack them at an angle forming a V on the back wall of my space.

A very nice small walnut desk just in time for back to school.

The blue pieces are livestock feeders that have a bracket to hang on a fence. They will make great flower pot holders on a porch or a deck.

The 1950's wire rescue basket has been hung upside down from the ceiling showing how it would work as a light fixture and pot holder over a center island.

I’m a guy who has somehow fallen into the shabby world. A shabby chic world of shabotaged furniture and foo foo accessories. My stuff tends to be outside of the cottage without much chic, shabby or otherwise. My things are the hogs in this world of roses. Thus the title: Hogs and Roses. (Please look at my 1st post "Why Hogs and Roses?")

This is Mr. Flannery

I want to be Henny Youngman, when I grow up. Take my wife -- please!
I enjoyed 7 years of marital bliss (17 years of marriage). I have been divorced forever. Love my role as curmudgeon, comedian, sage and advisor.